Halo 4 pulls in $220 million in 24 hours, takes entertainment record

Halo 4 has done what only Call of Duty has managed over the past few years: taken out this year’s entertainment launch sales records.

Halo 4 made $220 million worldwide in its first 24 hours. This grants it the title of biggest entertainment launch of the year to date.In the US alone, it’s out-performed both 2012’s biggest movie opening – The Avengers – and the all-time record holder – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

GameStop confirmed Halo’s day one sales were even greater than anticipated to become the retailer’s biggest Halo launch, and the biggest game launch of the year to date. Microsoft claims the shooter is on track to reach $300 million in its first week, which will make it the most lucrative launch in the franchise’s history. Lifetime franchise sales have topped $3.38 billion.

Additionally, Halo 4 has pulled in more launch players than any previous entry with 4 million in the first five days spending 31.4 million hours on the game. Look, my napkin maths isn’t all that great, but that certainly seems to be over 3,500 years’ worth. The Halo franchise has produced over 5 billion hours of play time to date.

On top of all that, the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn series has accumulated over 46 million views.

The latest Call of Duty has taken out entertainment launch records in the UK and US for the past three years running, but has not been challenged by the Microsoft-exclusive Halo series; Black Ops 2 launches today, so we’ll soon see if this is the year Activision takes home the wooden spoon.